land
Article
Exploring Adaptive UHI Mitigation Solutions by Spatial
Heterogeneity of Land Surface Temperature and Its
Relationship to Urban Morphology in Historical Downtown
Blocks, Beijing
Liukuan Zhang, Xiaoxiao Shi and Qing Chang *






Citation: Zhang, L.; Shi, X.; Chang, Q.
Exploring Adaptive UHI Mitigation
Solutions by Spatial Heterogeneity of
Land Surface Temperature and Its
Relationship to Urban Morphology in
Historical Downtown Blocks, Beijing.
Land 2022, 11, 544. https://doi.org/
10.3390/land11040544
Academic Editors: Bo Hong,
Dayi Lai, Zhi Gao, Yongxin Xie and
Kuixing Liu
Received: 12 March 2022
Accepted: 1 April 2022
Published: 8 April 2022
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
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iations.
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Land 2022, 11, 544. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11040544
College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; whiplash@cau.edu.cn (L.Z.);
shixiaoxiao@cau.edu.cn (X.S.)
* Correspondence: changqing@cau.edu.cn
Abstract: Heat stress brought on by the intensification of urban heat island (UHI) has caused many
negative effects on human beings, which were found to be more severe in highly urbanized old
towns. With the inconsistent findings on how urban spatial morphological characteristics influence
land surface temperature (LST) and gaps between design practices being found, we chose Beijing
Old Town (BOT) as the study area and took the basic planning implementation module “block” as a
study to reveal the spatial heterogeneity of LST and its relationship to multiple urban morphological
characteristics with higher spatial resolution calculated via WorldView3. Our results have shown
that (1) UHI effect was significant and spatially heterogeneous in BOT, and significant hot areas with
high LST value and small LST differences were found, as cold areas were the exact opposite. (2) The
proportion of vegetated area, water, impervious surface, and urban spatial structure indicators i.e.,
building coverage ratio, mean height, highest building index, height fluctuation degree, space crowd
degree and sky view factor were identified as significantly affecting the LST of blocks in BOT. (3) The
effects of GBI components and configuration on LST varied within different block types; generally,
blocks with GBI with larger patches that were more complex in shape, more aggregated, and less
fragmented were associated with lower LST. Finally, in the context of integrating our study results
with relevant planning and design guidelines, a strategy sample of adaptive GBI planning and
vegetation design for blocks with different morphological features was provided for urban planners
and managers to make a decision on UHI mitigation in the renewal process of BOT.
Keywords: Beijing Old Town; land surface temperature; urban morphology; green and blue
infrastructure; composition & configuration
1. Introduction
It has long been recognized that urbanization changes spatial morphology and brings
about population aggregation of cities, thus resulting in various urban problems [1]. One
of the most reported examples is that urban areas are warmer than the surrounding
countryside, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island (UHI) [2]. The UHI effect has
been observed worldwide, contributing to a suite of negative impacts such as increasing
energy consumption [3,4] and urban smog formation [5], reducing thermal comfort of urban
dwellers, and increasing health problems [6–8] and mortality rates [9,10]. Consequently, the
UHI effect of urban spatial morphology and how to mitigate it via Nature-based Solution
(NbS) has attracted increasing attention from scientists and urban managers [11–14]. Lately,
the UHI effect has been generally studied by remote-sensed land surface temperature
(LST) or station-based air temperature [12,13,15]. Due to convenience and effectiveness in
acquiring spatial variations of temperature, LST is widely applied to analyze the spatial
pattern of UHI and its relationship to urban morphology [16–18].
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land
Land 2022, 11, 544 2 of 24

1.1. Studies on the Impact of Urban Spatial Morphology on LST

The morphological characteristics of urban elements significantly affect the aggrega-
tion of heat, which in turn leads to the spatial and temporal differentiation of LST, thus
identifying the relationship between urban spatial morphology and LST as an effective way
to improve thermal environment [19–21]. Spatial morphology is usually demonstrated by
two-dimensional variables (generally characterized by land cover characteristics) and three-
dimensional variables (generally characterized by spatial structure of built-up) [17,22,23].
The impact of land cover characteristics on LST was proposed earlier and attracted the
attention of many researchers. Many studies have pointed out that LST varies significantly
across different land cover classes [24], most of which have shown that vegetation and
water areas have a cooling effect, an increase of vegetation, and water proportion which
helps to improve the urban thermal environment. On the other hand, impervious surface
area (ISA) is the most significant factor contributing to higher LST and thereby the UHI
effect [25]. Dark ISA (e.g., asphalt) decreases the amount of albedo of land surface and thus
increases the LST [26]. Imhoff et al. reported that ISA explains around 70% of the total LST
variance in 38 of the most populated cities in the US [27]. Therefore, in those downtown
areas with higher impervious surface, mitigating the UHI effect by optimizing land use
and land cover is a considerable challenge for urban planners.
At present, there are more and more studies that have focused on the impact of urban
spatial structure on LST. It has been accepted that the expansion of urban buildings and
traffic in vertical spaces affects land surface energy balance processes and air flow on a local
scale, which may aggravate the UHI effect [28]. Indicators of building density, height, and
volume, as well as the floor area ratio (FAR), sky view factor (SVF), and height/width ratio
(H/W), etc. are inarguably some of the most important factors influencing the LST [28,29].
Nevertheless, urban structure factors are shown to have a non-stationary relationship with
the LST according to existing conclusions [30–32]. For example, building density was one
of the top 2 features intensifying the UHI effect in one case study [33], while SVF is the
significant index indicating the UHI effect in other studies [34,35]. One study argued that
LST tends to be lower in low building density areas [30], whereas another showed opposing
results [36]. Inconsistent results indicate the relationship between urban spatial structure
and LST remains under debate, which suggests that more study is needed to analyze the
influence of urban morphology on a thermal environment.
In addition, the relationship between LST and morphological indicators varies by
analysis unit [37,38] and spatial resolution [11,39]. In recent years, the main study units
selected by researchers were land use classes, grids, local climate zones, census blocks,
urban clusters, and climate zone types [39]. Most of these studies focused on a whole city by
taking administrative districts or general blocks as the analysis unit [13,22,24,40], ignoring
the difference of urban morphology among blocks. It was revealed that remote-sensing
images with higher spatial resolution can more accurately quantify urban characteristics.
This might be a green light to study the effect of spatial configuration on LST at a finer level
of spatial resolution, as well as to find some informative indicators that affect the thermal
environment significantly, such as patch size, edge density, and interspersion juxtaposition
index [40,41].

1.2. Studies on the Impact of Green and Blue Infrastructure’s Spatial Pattern on LST
Cooling is reported to be the strongest when a city’s green and blue infrastructure
(GBI) coverage lies between 70% and 80% [42]. However, land use for GBI is usually limited
for social-economic development. Consequently, quantitative evaluation of the impact
of GBI’s spatial pattern on LST is a prerequisite for proposing urban thermal mitigation
measures [17,36]. There are two fundamental aspects of landscape pattern: composition
and configuration, both of which influence the LST [24]. Previous studies showed that land
cover composition has a clear and significant influence on LST, the relationship between the
proportion of GBI compositions (i.e., trees, grassland, and water bodies), and LST varies
widely depending on the characteristics of urban sites [43].
Land 2022, 11, 544 3 of 24

Numerous studies have concerned the relationship between GBI configuration and
their cooling effect. The configuration of GBI can be broadly divided into four categories:
area-related, shape complexity, connectivity, fragmentation, and aggregation [13]. The
results from these studies are, however, inconclusive and contradictory, and rarely were the
same methods replicated [13,44–46]. For example, some studies showed that fragmented
GBI may have a higher cooling effect [47], while some researchers have come to the
opposite conclusion [11,48]. In some studies, GBI with regular form tend to be more
effective at cooling [49,50], other studies, on the other hand, were supporting the opposite
conclusion [47,51]. Contradictory findings also exist in the analysis of the impact of the
GBI aggregation on the thermal environment [11,52], indicating that there is no consensus
on whether GBI patches should be of regular or irregular form, nor should they be more
aggregated, fragmented or connected from the perspective of enhancing their cooling effect.
This may be due to scale-dependency and contextual difference between cities [13]. In
addition, fewer studies have examined whether the thermal environmental impacts of
GBI are consistent across different urban forms under the premise that significant spatial
morphological differences are identified in the same study area. Therefore, it is necessary
to explore how GBI should be composed and spatially arranged in order to achieve better
cooling benefits in blocks with different urban morphology.

1.3. Planning Orientation of Urban Thermal Environment Improvement Studies

As the basic unit of urban construction in China, block is the main unit used to manage
land use, control development intensity, allocate public facilities, etc. [53]. It is also the basic
scale for shaping urban morphology [54]. Therefore, it is very meaningful to study the
relationship between LST and urban morphology at this scale, and to explore the applicable
thermal mitigation strategies for urban planning (UP). Some researchers have conducted
studies on block level in Chinese cities such as Wuhan and Xi’an [22,24]. They revealed
the significant impact of urban characteristics on LST and proposed some directions for
optimizing urban 2D or 3D characteristics; however, these findings can be further refined
to form a research strategy and integrate the results with local planning documents to
enhance the value of practical application.
In order to offer practical, operational guidelines for urban managers, the selection of
morphological indicators and the research process should be more comprehensively consid-
ered. Some researchers mentioned that the indicators selected for the study should be those
that can be directly used or provide specific directions for urban planning; e.g., building
height, floor area ratio, building coverage ratio, and so on [28,29]. As for indicators that
are not used in UP practices but characterize the urban form in a comprehensive way,
their significance for guiding UP should be explored [24]. In addition, urban planning and
design has a comprehensive process and a clear sequence, in which after the spatial layout
of the city is clearly defined and a regional infrastructure planning framework is formed,
various important urban construction projects can be drawn up; i.e., the construction at
the three-dimensional level is restricted by the planning at the two-dimensional level [54].
Most of the current studies have analyzed different levels of indicators simultaneously
during the analysis [30,55], which may lead to interference in the analysis results.
Therefore, this study aims to explore the adaptive UHI mitigation solutions based
on the correlations between fine-texture morphological indicators and LST in old down-
town areas by using imagery with high spatial resolution. We conducted this research
in the historical downtown blocks in Beijing City, China. Specifically, it addresses three
questions as follows: (1) what are the LST characteristics of blocks and how do these
LST characteristics differ among different blocks in Beijing Old Town? (2) Which urban
morphological indicators influence the LST significantly in these blocks? (3) What are the
differences in relationships between the LST and GBI pattern among blocks with different
morphological features?
 old city renewal process.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area and Block Units
Land 2022, 11, 544 Beijing Old Town (BOT), located in the center of Beijing City (39°28′~41°50′ 4 of 24 N,
115°25′~117°30′ E), with a total area of about 62.5 km2, was defined as the area within the
Second-Ring Road by the Urban Master Plan of Beijing (2016–2035) [56] (Figure 1). BOT has
Importantfor
been developed insight
3000ofyears,
adaptive
andGBIhasplanning
been theand vegetation
capital city fordesign can bewhere
800 years, provided not only
for urban planners and managers to make decisions about mitigating the
cultural relics and historic sites are richer, but where a greater variety of buildings UHI effect in the exist
old city renewal process.
and a larger population aggregates. BOT acts as the most key area for the preservation of
urban historical
2. Materials andand cultural heritage in Beijing. Nevertheless, there are both significant
Methods
hot2.1.
andStudy
coolArea
spots of UHIUnits
and Block observed in this area [57]. Consequently, efforts to mitigate the
UHI effect should
Beijing Old strictly implement
Town (BOT), located theinrequirements
the center of of “the City
Beijing old town
(39◦ 28can
0 ~41no
◦ 50longer
0 N, be
demolished”.
◦ 0 ◦ 0 2
115 25 ~117 30 E), with a total area of about 62.5 km , was defined as the area within the
AccordingRoad
Second-Ring to the Detail
by the UrbanRegulatory
Master Plan Plan in the(2016–2035)
of Beijing Functional [56]
Core(Figure
Area 1).
of Beijing
BOT has(Block
been
Level) developed
[58], for 300025
BOT involves years, and has
districts been
that arethe capital city
composed of for
123800 years,(including
blocks where not 47 onlyhistor-
cultural relics and historic sites are richer, but where a greater variety of
ical and cultural blocks, HCB) (Figure 1a). HCB refers to blocks with historical value that buildings exist
andtoabe
need larger population
protected, aggregates.
in which they areBOT acts aswith
dotted the most
many key area for the
traditional preservation
housing of
quadrangles
urban historical and cultural heritage in Beijing. Nevertheless, there are both significant
(siheyuan) and alleyways (called as hutongs). Some of the most famous hutongs such as
hot and cool spots of UHI observed in this area [57]. Consequently, efforts to mitigate
Dashilar Commercial Street (Figure 1b), Nanluoguxiang Alley (Figure 1c) and Dongjia-
the UHI effect should strictly implement the requirements of “the old town can no longer
ominxiang Alley (Figure 1d) were distributed in this region.
be demolished”.

Figure 1. (a)
Figure Location
1. (a) Location&& blocks
blocksdivision
divisionofofthethestudy
study area
area and locationofoffamous
and location famoushutongs,
hutongs, here (b)
here
Dashilar commercial
(b) Dashilar street
commercial and
street anditsitsphoto; (c)Nanluoguxiang
photo; (c) Nanluoguxiang Alley
Alley and
and its its photo;
photo; (d) Dongjia-
(d) Dongjiaom-
ominxiang alley and its photo. (photos taken by the
inxiang alley and its photo. (photos taken by the authors). authors).

According
2.2. Data the Detail Regulatory Plan in the Functional Core Area of Beijing (Block
to Processing
Source and
Level) [58], BOT involves 25 districts that are composed of 123 blocks (including 47 his-
We obtained the LST and urban morphological indicators by remote sensing image
torical and cultural blocks, HCB) (Figure 1a). HCB refers to blocks with historical value
data and
that building
need vector data.
to be protected, The former,
in which they are including
dotted withLandsat-8 OLI Imagery
many traditional housing(September,
quad-
2017) from(siheyuan)
rangles the Geographical Spatial
and alleyways Data
(called as Cloud (http://www.gscloud.cn
hutongs). (accessed
Some of the most famous hutongs on 9
such as Dashilar Commercial Street (Figure 1b), Nanluoguxiang Alley (Figure 1c) and
Dongjiaominxiang Alley (Figure 1d) were distributed in this region.

2.2. Data Source and Processing

We obtained the LST and urban morphological indicators by remote sensing image
data and building vector data. The former, including Landsat-8 OLI Imagery (September,
2017) from the Geographical Spatial Data Cloud (http://www.gscloud.cn (accessed on
9 September 2020)) and WorldView-3 Imagery (October 2018) with a high resolution of
0.30 m, are used to extract the LST value and landscape characteristic indicators [46].
Land 2022, 11, 544 5 of 24

They are high-quality images in which cloud cover in the study area is less than 3%,
and the weather on these days was mainly sunny with light wind; that is, the thermal
environment was not affected by rainfall or wind [59]. Based on the ENVI5.3, the remote
sensing data was pre-processed through radiometric calibration, atmospheric correction,
and orthorectification, as well as image fusion, cropping, and enhancement [60]; the latter
are the Amap building vector data (2016). After spatial correction, we applied it to calculate
the spatial structure indicators of built-up.

2.3. Characteristic Indicators of UHI Based on LST

The radiative transfer equation (RTE) method was applied to retrieve the LST in
the thermal infrared (TIR) band (10.60~11.90 µm) of pre-processed Landsat-8 OLI using
ENVI 5.3, the specific calculation steps of which are described below [60]:

[ Lλ − L ↑ −τ (1 − ε) L ↓]
B( TS ) = (1)
τε
where B( TS ) is the blackbody radiance, Lλ is the thermal infrared radiance brightness
value; ε is the surface emissivity. The atmospheric profile parameters include τ, L ↑ ,
and L ↓ , where τ is the atmospheric transmittance in the thermal infrared band, L ↑
is the atmospheric upward radiance, and L ↓ is the atmospheric downward radiance;
parameters were obtained from media files of USGS ((https://www.usgs.gov (accessed on
3 March 2021)).
ε was calculated differently for different regions with following formulas [61]:

ε wt = 0.995 (2)

ε ua = 0.9589 + 0.086Pv − 0.0671Pv2 (3)

ε ns = 0.9625 + 0.0641Pv − 0.0461Pv2 (4)
where ε wt , ε ua , ε ns are surface emissivity of water body, urban area and natural surface,
respectively. The equation for Pv (vegetation coverage) is [62]:

( NDV I − NSoil )
Pv =
(5)
NVegetaion − NSoil

where NDV I is the normalized vegetation index of the whole BOT; NSoil is the NDVI of
the completely bare, soil-covered area; NVegetaion is the NDVI value of areas with complete
vegetation covered. Based on empirical values, NSoil equals 0.05 and NVegetaion equals
0.70 [59]. Planck’s formula was further applied to calculate the land surface temperature
Ts [63]:
K2
Ts =   (6)
K1
ln B(T ) + 1
S

where Ts is the surface brightness temperature; constants K1 = 774.89 W/(m2 µm sr),

K2 = 1321.08 K [22]).
The mean value (LSTmean ), standard deviation (LSTstd ), and value range (LSTrange )
of LST were used to quantify the variation of thermal environment in BOT. Among them,
LSTmean characterized the thermal intensity of urban blocks, the larger its value, the higher
the LST, the stronger the UHI intensity. LSTstd and LSTrange characterized the degree of
thermal variation of urban blocks, the smaller its value, the smaller the LST difference, the
lower the thermal dispersion intensity [64]. Meanwhile, the Getis–Ord Gi* local statistics of
LSTmean was also conducted to demonstrate the spatial heterogeneity of UHI (hot, warm,
Land 2022, 11, 544 6 of 24

and cold area) based on ArcGIS 10.6, as it was considered the most appropriate method to
identify hot spots [65]. The equations for calculating the Getis–Ord Gi* are [66]:

∑nj=1 wi,j x j − X ∑nj=1 wi,j

Gi∗ s   
(7)
 2
n ∑nj=1 wi,j
2 −
∑nj=1 wi,j
S n −1

∑nj=1 x j
X= (8)
n
s
∑nj=1 x2j 2
S= − (X) (9)
n
where i, j are designations of different raster cells/elements; wi,j is the spatial weight
between elements i and j; n is the number of raster cells; x is the raster cell attribute; X is
the average of attribute values [66]. The cohesion index and the aggregation index of hot,
warm, and cold areas were calculated with the software of Fragstats 4.2 [67].

2.4. Spatial Morphological Indicators of Urban Blocks

Here, characteristic indicators of land cover and spatial structure indicators of built-
ups (Table 1) were chosen to quantitatively describe urban morphology in BOT. The land
cover characteristic indicators were calculated by the land cover map based on WorldView-
3 Imagery. Based on the eCognition Developer 9.0, remote sensing interpretation was
carried out using the pre-processed WorldView-3 images [68]. Basic units were divided
using multi-scale segmentation, then the object-oriented classification method was applied
to firstly distinguish the water body and non-water body areas based on values of NIR
band, after which NDVI was defined in the software to distinguish the vegetated and
non-vegetated areas [69]. Additionally, combining with the human-computer interaction
method, grassland areas were distinguished from trees and shrubs. Final results were
further corrected by visual interpretation. The accuracy was verified by the field accuracy
check with sample points. Results showed that the overall interpretation accuracy was
93.7% with the kappa coefficient up to 0.92, which met the requirements of the experimental
data analysis [70]. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Impervious
Surface Area (ISA) were selected to represent the vegetation quality and the impervious
status of the land surface. The urban spatial structure indicators were calculated based
on modified Amap building vector data [71]. Formulas of these indicators are detailed in
Table A1. Block-based zonal statistics were conducted by using images after interpretation
in ArcGIS10.6.

Table 1. Description of land cover and urban spatial structure indicators.

Category Indicators Definition Unit

Impervious land proportion (IP)
Vegetated land proportion (VP)
Water proportion (WP)
Land cover Bare soil proportion (SP)
characteristics Normalized Difference Vegetation
Index (NDVI)
Impervious Surface Area (ISA)
The ratio of impervious area to block area. %
The ratio of vegetated area to block area. %
The ratio of water area to block area. %
The ratio of bare soil area to block area. %
The vegetation index calculated by the near-infrared band
-
and red band value of Landsat-8 OLI. [72]
The impervious degree calculated by a linear spectral
-
mixture decomposition model [73,74]
Land 2022, 11, 544 7 of 24

Table 1. Cont.

Category Indicators Definition Unit

Building coverage ratio (BCR) The ratio of building coverage to block area. %
Mean height (MH) The average height of buildings in the block. m
The ratio of the tallest building’s height to the sum of all
Highest building index (HBI) -
buildings’ heights in the block. [71]
The difference between the height of the tallest and
Height fluctuation degree (HFD) -
shortest building in the block [71]
Urban spatial Average Volume (AV) The average volume of buildings in the block. m3
structure The ratio of the sum of all buildings’ volumes to the
characteristics Space crowd degree (SCD) -
potential largest building volume in the block [71]
Floor area ratio (FAR) The ratio of total above-ground floor area to block area. -
The average ratio of each building’s covered area to its
Building structural index (BSI) -
height in the block [71]
Building surface area (BSA) The surface area of buildings in the block. m2
The average sky openness among buildings in the
Sky view factor (SVF) -
block [75,76]

To find the mitigation measures of UHI in urban blocks, spatial pattern indicators of
GBI were further selected in Table 2. The composition indicators of TP, GP and WP were
calculated from interpretation results of WorldView3. By merging trees, shrubs, grass and
water in ArcGIS10.6, we obtained the GBI raster map and calculated its spatial configuration
within blocks by the software of Fragstats4.2. Formulas of the configuration indicators
were detailed in Table A2.

Table 2. Description of spatial pattern indicators of GBI.

Category Indicators Definition Unit

The ratio of tree and shrub covered area to
Trees and shrubs proportion (TP) %
block area.
Composition
Grass proportion (GP) The ratio of grass covered area to block area. %
Water proportion (WP) The ratio of water area to block area. %
Average area of all GBI patches within
Mean patch size (AREA_MN) Ha
the block
Patch Size
Ratio of the area of the largest GBI patch to
Largest patch index (LPI) %
the total area of GBI within the block
Area-weighted fractal dimension The fractal dimension weighted by its area of
-
Patch shape index (FRAC_AM) individual GBI patches in the block
Modified perimeter-area ratio of GBI patches
Landscape shape index (LSI) -
Configuration in the block
Number of patches (NP) The number of GBI patches in the block -
Area-weighted Euclidean nearest The ENN-MN weighted by the area of GBI
%
Fragmentation neighbor distance (ENN_AM) patches in the block
Connectivity A measure of aggregation between GBI
Aggregation patches within blocks, obtained by dividing
Aggregation index (AI) number of joins by the maximum possible m
umber of joins among GBI patches in
the block
Note: Definition of spatial pattern indicators are referring to McGarigal and Marks [67].

2.5. Relationship Analysis Methods

The Pearson correlation analysis was conducted between urban morphology and the
LST with the help of SPSS25.0. Pearson correlation test was also conducted in order to
avoid the effect of the multicollinearity of indicators. Variables with coefficients larger
than 0.6 have a strong correlation to each other and one of them should be excluded from
the following analysis [77]. By using the absolute values of correlation coefficients, we
PEER REVIEW 8 of 24

Land 2022, 11, 544 8 of 24

explained the influence and dominance of the morphological indicators on the thermal
environment. Indicators with significance coefficients less than 0.05 were considered be-
explainedwith
ing significantly correlated the influence and dominance
the thermal environment of the[78].
morphological indicators on the thermal
environment. Indicators with significance coefficients less than 0.05 were considered being
Urban green space planning is dependent on block morphological characteristics.
significantly correlated with the thermal environment [78].
Thus, all above morphological
Urban greenindicators identified
space planning to beonsignificant
is dependent correlated
block morphological with
characteristics.
LSTmean were selected to classify
Thus, block types in
all above morphological BOT. The
indicators sum of
identified thesignificant
to be squaredcorrelated
errors method
with LSTmean
(SEE) was applied in Python v3.8.5 to determine the optimal number of clustering “K”(SEE)
were selected to classify block types in BOT. The sum of the squared errors method
[79]. All indicators was applied
related in Python
were v3.8.5 to determine
standardized in SPSS the optimal
25.0, number of clustering
and K-means clustering “K” [79]. All
was
indicators related were standardized in SPSS 25.0, and K-means clustering was performed
performed afterwards. Partial correlation analysis was performed between the GBI pat-
afterwards. Partial correlation analysis was performed between the GBI pattern indicators
tern indicators andandLSTLST
mean & &
mean
LST
LSTstdstdwithin different
within different block
block types.
types. Below,Below,
Figure 2Figure 2 shows
shows the flow chart of
the flow chart of thethemethods
methods andanddata datapre-processing
pre-processing for
for the the present
present study. study.

Figure 2. Flowchart ofFigure

this study. Note:
2. Flowchart of Getis-Ord Gi*,Getis-Ord
this study. Note: a hotspotGi*,analysis
a hotspottool, was
analysis applied
tool, to iden-
was applied to identify
tify those spatially aggregated high
those spatially and lowhigh
aggregated LSTand
points with
low LST statistically
points significance.
with statistically significance.

3. Results
3. Results 3.1. Spatial Heterogeneity of UHI in Historical Downtown Blocks
3.1. Spatial HeterogeneityBeijing
of UHI inTown
Old Historical
(BOT)Downtown
was located Blocks
in central Beijing, where high LST aggregated
◦
(Figure 3a). The LSTmean of BOT was 33.06 C higher than 27.09 C of the whole city and
Beijing Old Town (BOT) was located in central Beijing, where high LST aggregated
31.15 ◦ C of the central urban area, while LSTstd was 2.09 ◦ C and LSTrange was 25.25 ◦ C,
(Figure 3a). The LST mean of BOT was 33.06 C higher than 27.09 °C of the whole city and
respectively, lower than those of the whole city and central urban area of Beijing (Table 3).
31.15 °C of the central urban characteristics
The thermal area, while LST std was
of higher 2.09
mean °C and LST
temperature value was
and
range 25.25
lower °C,
temperature
respectively, lower than those of the whole city and central urban area of Beijing (Tablestress.
difference indicated that this historical downtown area was under more severe heat
3). The thermal characteristics of higher mean temperature value and lower temperature
difference indicated that this historical downtown area was under more severe heat stress.
The thermal environment characteristics within BOT were spatially differentiated
among blocks, while the hot and cold areas had conjugated each other (Figure 3a,b). Inte-
grated with the LST value and spatial characteristics of hot, warm and cold areas, we
found that the LSTmean of hot areas reached as high as 35.61 °C, while the LSTstd and LSTrange
was 0.86 °C and 4.95 °C, respectively (Table 3). Those typical heat islands with higher
cohesion and lower connectivity value (Table 3) were mainly aggregated in the Dashilar

Land 2022, 11, 544
and connectivity value (Table 3) consisted of the matrix of LST distribution pattern in BOT
(Figure 3c). The LSTmean of warm areas was 33.19 °C that was lower than that of hot areas,
while the LSTstd (0.86 °C) was equal to that of the hot area and even the LSTrange (3.88 °C)
was lower than that of hot areas (Table 3). This indicated that the warm area also had a
feature with high average temperature and smaller temperature differences but 9 ofwas
24 not
as significant as hot areas.

Figure
Figure3. 3.(a)(a)Land
Land surface temperature
surface temperature (LST)
(LST) of Beijing
of Beijing wholewhole
city; (b)city;
LST of(b)Beijing
LST of OldBeijing Old Town
Town (BOT);
(BOT); (c) Spatial hotspots of LST in BOT, here, i—Dashilar Block, ii—Xinjiekou Block,
(c) Spatial hotspots of LST in BOT, here, i—Dashilar Block, ii—Xinjiekou Block, iii—Tiyuguanlu Block, iii—Tiyu-
guanlu Block, iv—Jianguomen Block, v—Shichahai Block, vi—Tiantan
iv—Jianguomen Block, v—Shichahai Block, vi—Tiantan Block, vii—Longtan Block. Block, vii—Longtan Block.

Table 3. 3.
Table Description
Descriptionof
ofspatial patternindicators
spatial pattern indicatorsofof GBI.
GBI.

The LST
The LST Indicator/ ◦C Indicator/°C The Spatial
The Spatial Characteristic
Characteristic Indicator Indicator
Region
Region
LSTmean LSTstd LST
range Area/km2 Area/ Proportion/
Proportion/ % Cohesion Aggregation
LSTmean LST std LSTrange Cohesion Aggregation
Whole City of Beijing 27.09 3.22 32.07 / km 2
/ % / /
Central urban area of Beijing 31.15 City of2.74
Whole 27.66 / / / /
Beijing Old Town (BOT) 33.06 2.0927.09 25.25
3.22 32.07
62.28 / 100 / / / / /
Cold area
Beijing 1.37
29.92 17.47 12.42 19.95 82.27 88.56
Warm area Central
33.19 urban0.86 3.88 36.27 58.23 94.17 91.10
Hot area 35.61 0.8631.15 4.952.74 27.66
13.59 / 21.82 / 82.80 / 89.57 /
area of Beijing
Beijing Old
TownThe thermal33.06
(BOT)
2.09 characteristics
environment 25.25 62.28 within BOT100were spatially
/ differentiated
/
among blocks, while the hot and cold areas had conjugated each other (Figure 3a,b).
Cold area 29.92 1.37 17.47 12.42 19.95 82.27 88.56
Integrated with the LST value and spatial characteristics of hot, warm and cold areas, we
Warm area 33.19 0.86 3.88 36.27 58.23 94.17
found that the LSTmean of hot areas reached as high as 35.61 ◦ C, while the LSTstd and
91.10
LSTrange was 0.86 C and 4.95 C, respectively (Table 3). Those typical heat islands 89.57
Hot area 35.61
◦ 0.86◦ 4.95 13.59 21.82 82.80 with
higher cohesion and lower connectivity value (Table 3) were mainly aggregated in the
3.2.Dashilar
Relationship
Block,between
XinjiekouUHI andTiyuguanlu
Block, Block Morphology
Block and Jianguomen Block (Figure 3c(i–iv)).
Conversely, the LSTmean of cold areas was lower than 30 ◦ C, with the LSTstd reaching
To avoid the multicollinearity of indicators in Table 1, the Pearson’s correlation coef-
1.37 ◦ C and LSTrange up to 17.47 ◦ C. Those areas also had higher cohesion and lower
ficient among initial morphological features is calculated and shown in Figure 4. Here, the
connectivity value (Table 3) and mainly clumped in blocks of Shichahai, Tiantan and
NDVI was (Figure
Longtan highly 3c(v–vii)).
correlated with the vegetation proportion (VP), ISA was highly corre-
lated with the impervious
Different from the above surface
two proportion (ISP),
types of areas, the the
warmbuilding
area withsurface
highestarea (BSA) was
cohesion
highly correlated with
and connectivity valuethe mean
(Table height (MH),
3) consisted the average
of the matrix of LSTvolume (AV)
distribution and the
pattern building
in BOT
◦ C that was lower than that of hot areas,
structural index (BSI),
(Figure 3c). The LST BSI was highly correlated with MH and AV and AV was highly
mean of warm areas was 33.19
while thewith
LSTstd ◦ C) was equal to that of the hot area and even the LST
(0.86BSI ◦ C)
correlated FAR, and BSA, all of which had a correlation coefficient range (3.88
over 0.6. Be-
was lower than that of hot areas (Table 3). This indicated that the
cause VP, ISP and MH are commonly used in urban planning and design, we excludedwarm area also had a
feature with high average temperature and smaller temperature differences but was not as
significant as hot areas.

3.2. Relationship between UHI and Block Morphology

To avoid the multicollinearity of indicators in Table 1, the Pearson’s correlation coeffi-
cient among initial morphological features is calculated and shown in Figure 4. Here, the
NDVI was highly correlated with the vegetation proportion (VP), ISA was highly correlated
 Land 2022, 11, 544 10 of 24

with the impervious surface proportion (ISP), the building surface area (BSA) was highly
EER REVIEW 10 of 24
correlated with the mean height (MH), the average volume (AV) and the building structural
index (BSI), BSI was highly correlated with MH and AV and AV was highly correlated
with FAR, BSI and BSA, all of which had a correlation coefficient over 0.6. Because VP,
ISP and MH are commonly used in urban planning and design, we excluded NDVI and
NDVI and ISA fromISA land cover characteristic indicators, as well as BSI, BSA and AV from
from land cover characteristic indicators, as well as BSI, BSA and AV from spatial
spatial structure indicators.
structure indicators.

Figure 4. Pearson’s correlation among urban morphological indicators. Note: ** means at the 0.01
Figure 4. Pearson’s correlation amongthe
level (two-tailed), urban morphological
correlation is significant.indicators. Note:
* means at the ** means
0.05 level at the the
(two-tailed), 0.01
correlation
level (two-tailed), the correlation
is significant. is significant. * means at the 0.05 level (two-tailed), the correla-
tion is significant.
Then, we further conducted the correlation analysis between screened block morpho-
logical indicators and the LST. As shown in Table 4, ISP reaching 67.86% of the total area
Then, we further of conducted the correlation
BOT is significantly positively analysis
correlatedbetween
with LSTmeanscreened block morpho-
and negatively correlated with
logical indicators and theLST
both LST.
std
As
and shown
LST range ,in Table
while it 4,
is ISP
the reaching
opposite for 67.86%
GBI-related of the total
indicators area
such as VP
of BOT is significantly positively correlated with LSTmean and negatively correlated with
and WP. Nevertheless, the presence of bare soil did not have a significant effect on either
LST,mean
both LSTstd and LSTrange or LST
while it is , noropposite
std the on LSTrangefor. Meanwhile,
GBI-relatedthe absolute
indicatorsvaluesuch
of correlation
as VP and coefficient
between ISP and LSTmean was significantly higher than that of VP and WP, indicating that
WP. Nevertheless, the presence of bare soil did not have a significant effect on either
the positive influence of gray components (characterized by ISP) on LSTmean was higher
LSTmean or LSTstd, northan
onthe
LST range. Meanwhile,
negative influence of the the absolute
blue-green value of characterized
components correlation by coefficient
VP and WP. The
between ISP and LST mean was
absolute valuesignificantly
of correlationhigher than
coefficient that of
between ISPVPandand
LSTWP,
std indicating
(as well as that) was a
LSTrange
bit lower than that of WP, but significantly higher
the positive influence of gray components (characterized by ISP) on LSTmean was higherthan VP, showing that the influence of
increasing the temperature difference from WP was greater than that from VP, as well as
than the negative influence of the blue-green components characterized by VP and WP.
the influence of reducing the temperature difference from ISP.
The absolute value of correlation
Consideringcoefficient between
blocks with higher ISP and
ISP tended LSTstd
to have (as well
higher as LSTtemperature
LST, smaller range)

was a bit lower thandifferences

that of WP, but significantly higher than VP, showing that the
and more gathered hot areas, the relationship between spatial structure indica- influ-
ence of increasing the temperature
tors of built-up and difference
the LST was from
furtherWP was greater
analyzed than
by partial that from
correlation VP, as
analysis (Table 5).
The building coverage ratio (BCR), the
well as the influence of reducing the temperature difference from ISP. space crowd degree (SCD) and the sky view factor
(SVF) were all positively significant with LSTmean , with the absolute value of correlation
coefficient compared as BCR > SCD > SVF, while the building height related indicators
Table 4. Correlation between LST and land cover characteristic indicators.
including the mean height (MH), the highest building index (HBI) and the height fluctua-
tion degree (HFD) were all negatively significant with LSTmean , with the absolute value
Mean LSTmean LSTstd LSTrange
Indicators of correlation coefficient compared as MH > HFD > HBI. Nevertheless, BCR was the only
Value C S C S C S
Impervious surface
67.86% 0.717 ** 0.000 −0.529 ** 0.000 −0.446 ** 0.000
proportion (ISP)
Vegetation proportion
27.74% −0.675 ** 0.000 0.390 ** 0.000 0.358 ** 0.000
Land 2022, 11, 544 11 of 24

indicator with significantly negative correlation with LSTstd . The above results indicate
that the increase of buildings proportion in blocks will aggravate the increasing of LST
value and the reducing of LST variation, while the increase of average building height,
maximum building index and fluctuation can decrease the LST value but not affect the LST
difference. Overall, the BCR and MH were the primary two indicators of built-up’s spatial
structure affecting the LST in BOT blocks according to the absolute value comparison.

Table 4. Correlation between LST and land cover characteristic indicators.

LSTmean LSTstd LSTrange

Indicators Mean Value
C S C S C S
Impervious surface
67.86% 0.717 ** 0.000 −0.529 ** 0.000 −0.446 ** 0.000
proportion (ISP)
Vegetation proportion (VP) 27.74% −0.675 ** 0.000 0.390 ** 0.000 0.358 ** 0.000
Water proportion (WP) 3.20% −0.466 ** 0.000 0.583 ** 0.000 0.451 ** 0.000
Bare soil proportion (BP) 1.19% −0.114 0.208 0.026 0.778 −0.001 0.993
Note: C is the coefficient and S is the significance, and ** means at the 0.01 level (two-tailed), the correlation
is significant.

Table 5. Correlation between LST and spatial structure indicators of built-up.

LSTmean LSTstd LSTrange

Indicators
C S C S C S
Building coverage ratio (BCR) 0.543 ** 0.000 −0.203 * 0.026 −0.145 0.113
Mean height (MH) −0.785 ** 0.000 0.100 0.280 0.042 0.653
Highest building index (HBI) −0.361 ** 0.000 −0.161 0.080 −0.236 ** 0.009
Height fluctuation degree (HFD) −0.411 ** 0.000 0.144 0.117 0.139 0.129
Space crowd degree (SCD) 0.464 ** 0.000 −0.080 0.387 −0.129 0.160
Floor area ratio (FAR) 0.020 0.829 0.078 0.396 0.023 0.800
Sky view factor (SVF) 0.237 ** 0.009 0.033 0.721 0.028 0.764
Note: C is the coefficient and S is the significance, and ** means at the 0.01 level (two-tailed), the correlation is
significant. * means at the 0.05 level (two-tailed), the correlation is significant.

3.3. Relationships between UHI and GBI in Different Spatial Morphological Blocks
Morphological indicators with significant correlation with LSTmean obtained from
the above were used to classify blocks with different urban form in BOT. After applying
the sum of the squared errors method (SSE) to identify K-value (K = 3 in this study),
we classified those blocks into three categories by K-means clustering, which were high
GBI proportion and mid-rise blocks (HMB), mid GBI proportion and high-rise blocks
(MHB), and low GBI proportion and low-rise blocks (LLB), with a quantity of 30, 45 and
48, respectively (Figure 5a). There existed significant differences of thermal environment
and urban morphology among three categories of block types (Figure 5b,c). The LSTmean
of HMB was 31.57 ◦ C, lower than 32.82 ◦ C for MHB and 34.42 ◦ C for LLB. HMB also had
the highest LSTstd and LSTrange (1.61 ◦ C, 7.02 ◦ C), both higher than that for MHB (1.07 ◦ C,
0.90 ◦ C) and LLB (5.26 ◦ C, 4.26 ◦ C). As for block morphology, HMB had the highest GBI
proportion (that is the sum of VP and WP) and the lowest ISP, while LLB was exactly
opposite and MHB was in-between (Figure 5c). LLB has the highest proportion of buildings
with the highest spatial congestion and lowest building height, which was significantly
different from the other two block types (Figure 5c).
PEER REVIEW 12 of 24
Land 2022, 11, 544 12 of 24

Figure
Figure 5. (a) Distribution (a) Distribution
of 5.different types of
ofdifferent
blocks in types of blocks
BOT; in BOT; (b)boxplots
(b) Statistical Statistical of
boxplots of LST charac-
LST charac-
teristics
teristics of different block of different
types; block types;
(c) Statistical (c) Statistical
boxplots boxplots of morphological
of morphological characteristics
characteristics of different
of different
block types, here, the numbers are the mean value of indicators, the sign “ ◦ ” are outliers for block
block types, here, the numbers are the mean value of indicators, the sign “°” are outliers for block
water proportion statistics.
water proportion statistics.
Then, we further conducted Pearson correlation statistics to analyze the relationship
Then, we further conducted
between the LSTPearson correlationand
and GBI composition statistics to analyze
configuration the relationship
characteristic in three categories
of blocks. Here, considering that LST and LST showed
between the LST and GBI composition and configuration characteristic in three categories
std range similar feature differences
among three block types (Figure 5b), only LSTstd and LSTmean was selected for the following
of blocks. Here, considering that LSTstd and LSTrange showed similar feature differences
correlation analysis. As shown in Table 6, the tree cover proportion (TP) in HMB and LLB
among three block types
while (Figure
the grass 5b),
coveronly LSTstd(GP)
proportion andinLST MHB mean was selected for the following
were presented significantly correlated with
correlation analysis.LST
Asmean
shown
, but in
no Table 6, the
correlation tree
with cover
LST std , proportion
and (TP) in
the water cover HMB and
proportion LLB
(WP) in HMB
while the grass coverhadproportion (GP) inboth
significant correlation MHB withwere
LSTmean presented
and LSTstdsignificantly
, and in MHB only correlated
had significant
with LSTmean, but no correlation with LSTstd, and the water cover proportion (WP) in The
correlation with LST mean , but no correlation with LST mean and LST std in LLB. HMB absolute
values of correlation coefficients in HMB were obviously larger than those in MHB and
had significant correlation both with LSTmean and LSTstd, and in MHB only had significant
LLB. The above showed that the relationship between GBI composition and LST varied
correlation with LSTdepending
mean, but no correlation
on block types, andwiththe LST
mean mean
LSTand LST
value std inbe
might LLB.
reducedThebyabsolute
increasing the
values of correlationproportion
coefficients in HMB
of trees, shrubs,were
water obviously larger according
bodies or grassland than those in MHB
to local and
conditions.
LLB. The above showed that the relationship between GBI composition and LST varied
depending on block types, and the mean LST value might be reduced by increasing the
proportion of trees, shrubs, water bodies or grassland according to local conditions.
As for the GBI configuration indicators, their correlations with the LSTmean and LSTstd
varied among different blocks, too. Overall, only the AREA_MN was negatively corre-
Land 2022, 11, 544 13 of 24

Table 6. Correlation coefficients of LST and GBI spatial pattern characteristics.

HMB MHB LLB

Category Indicators
LSTmean LSTstd LSTmean LSTstd LSTmean LSTstd
TP −0.531 ** 0.111 −0.033 −0.067 −0.353 * −0.109
Composition GP −0.050 0.021 −0.313 * 0.234 −0.274 −0.032
WP −0.520 ** 0.565 ** −0.314 * 0.112 −0.145 −0.031
LPI −0.702 ** 0.403 * −0.182 0.110 −0.401 ** −0.047
Patch Size
AREA_MN −0.729 ** 0.303 −0.323 * 0.312 * −0.600 ** −0.117
LSI 0.153 0.191 0.339 * 0.060 0.060 0.037
Shape Complexity
FRAC_AM −0.693 ** 0.219 −0.168 0.046 −0.616 ** −0.077
Fragmentation NP −0.035 0.265 0.312 * 0.061 0.131 0.047
Connectivity ENN_AM 0.456 * −0.295 0.011 0.285 0.483 ** 0.082
Aggregation AI −0.764 ** 0.480 ** −0.267 0.442 ** −0.570 ** 0.028
Note: TP-trees and shrubs proportion; GP-grass proportion; WP-water proportion; LPI-largest patch index;
AREA_MN-mean patch size; LSI-landscape shape index; FRAC_AM-area-weighted fractal dimension index;
NP-number of patches; ENN_AM- Mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance; AI-aggregation index. ** means
at the 0.01 level (two-tailed), the correlation is significant. * means at the 0.05 level (two-tailed), the correlation
is significant.

As for the GBI configuration indicators, their correlations with the LSTmean and LSTstd
varied among different blocks, too. Overall, only the AREA_MN was negatively correlated
with LSTmean in all block types; the LPI, FRAC_AM, and AI were negatively correlated
with LSTmean , while the ENN_AM was positively correlated with LSTmean significantly
in HMB and LLB, and no significant correlation was found in MHB; the LSI and NP
were positively correlated with LSTmean in MHB. Fewer indicators were identified to be
significantly correlated with LSTstd , which were the LPI and AI in HMB, and AREA_MN
and AI in MHB.
By comparing the absolute values of correlation coefficients between LSTmean and
GBI configuration indicators, we further found that the absolute values of coefficients for
indicators that characterized GBI patches’ area and their aggregation, including the LPI,
AREA_MN and AI, were generally higher than those for other indicators, and the absolute
values of coefficients in HMB were also larger than those in LLB (Table 5). As for the
FRAC_AM, the indicator characterizing the shape complexity of GBI patches, the absolute
value of coefficient in HMB was found to be higher than that in LLB. Nevertheless, for the
indicator of ENN_AM representing the connectivity of GBI, the absolute value of coefficient
in HMB were smaller than that in LLB.
As a whole, both the correlation significance between LST and GBI’s pattern indicators
and the absolute value of their correlation coefficients were significantly different; thus, it is
important to emphasize the spatial morphological dependence of the GBI pattern influence
on the UHI effect in BOT blocks.

3.4. Potential Adaptive UHI Mitigation Solutions for Historical Downtown Blocks with Different
Spatial Morphology
As a typical historical downtown area, Beijing Old Town (BOT) has been strictly
protected to preserve the original build style and cultural features; any planning and
design acts must be initiated on the premise of protecting the historical and cultural
heritage [56,58,80]. Thence, a comprehensive and feasible GBI planning design for thermal
mitigation in BOT might consider at least the following three aspects: urban morphology
characteristics, the composition and configuration of GBI, as well as the policy terms and
control intensity. Integrated with a broad review of requirements and guidelines of urban
planning and management in BOT, we extracted the GBI measures permitted in BOT, and
provided a set of thermal mitigation measures by GBI, as Table 7 showed. Based on this
measure set, we provided an adaptive thermal mitigation solution using GBI for each
block (Figures 6–8).
Land 2022, 11, 544 14 of 24

Table 7. Summary of GBI measures to mitigate the UHI in Beijing Old Town.

Direction 1: Improvement for Construction of Urban Green and Blue Space System
Key Points
Promoting street shading
Increasing the area and
accessibility of green space
Enhancing the quality of
green space
Improve greening
construction mechanism
Optimize plant
species selection
Direction 2: Preservation of urban spatial matrix and historical features
Key Points
Promoting the tree protection
Promoting shading
transformation of
checkerboard-shaped
street network
Strengthening preservation
and maintenance of
traditional buildings
and alleys
Regulating population density
Reinforce street characteristics
and features
Note: Regulatory plan—Detail Regulatory Plan in the Functional Core Area of Beijing (Block Level) [58]; Design
Guideline-Design Guidelines for the Protection and Renewal of Beijing’s Historical and Cultural Districts [80]; Master
plan-Urban Master Plan of Beijing (2016–2035) [56].
Requirements Sources
Improve the construction of boulevard system, promote the
Regulatory plan, 2020.
transformation of street shading facilities.
Optimize plant communities and improve the quality of
Regulatory plan, 2020.
street shade.
Promote greening coverage, green space per capita, etc. Regulatory plan, 2020.
Constructing both community parks and small pocket green Regulatory plan, 2020; Design
spaces on marginal land, unused land and etc. guideline, 2019.
Improve the level of green vision ratio in various urban spaces. Regulatory plan, 2020.
Improve the three-dimensional greening scenery by reasonably Regulatory plan, 2020; Design
vertical and roof greening. guideline, 2019.
Promote public participation in greening construction
Regulatory plan, 2020
and education.
Carry out public participation in greening construction Regulatory plan, 2020; Design
activities of hutongs and courtyard. guideline, 2019.
Select native plants such as acacia, mulberry, willow,
Design guideline, 2019.
pomegranate, begonia, etc.
Requirements Sources
Integrate trees preservation with street greening or public space
Regulatory plan, 2020; Design
design programs, strictly implement the protection of famous
guideline, 2019.
trees, large trees, old and historic trees.
Carry out the “one tree for one courtyard” replanting program. Regulatory plan, 2020.
Enhance the proportion of boulevards, improve greening rate of
street network by increasing the green space on both sides Regulatory plan, 2020.
of streets.
Strictly implement the requirements of historical buildings or Master plan, 2017; Regulatory
buildings with traditional features can no longer be demolished. plan, 2020.
Promote housing decrement renewal, carry out retreatment and
Regulatory plan, 2020
renovation of illegal or makeshift buildings.
Control resident density integrated with economic and
Regulatory plan, 2020.
social planning.
Select the materials (e.g., greenery, wall, and pavement and etc.)
Regulatory plan, 2020; Design
consistent with historical features in design and
guideline, 2019.
management works.

• High GBI proportion and mid-rise blocks (HMB)

These blocks are mainly located in the central and southern regions of Beijing Old
Town; e.g., West Chang’an Block, Donghuamen Block, Tiantan Block, Taoranting Block, etc.
There are larger bodies of water, parks and historical gardens concentrated in some blocks,
and the land surface temperature is relatively low. Spaces available for greening in such
blocks are relatively limited and scattered due to historical and cultural heritage protection
regulations. Hence, the priority in the GBI planning and design is the optimization of GBI
composition such as increasing trees, shrubs and water bodies in HMB blocks.
As for the optimization of GBI configuration, priority is firstly given to greening the
paved, vacant or unused lands in the residential clusters where heat islands exist (Figure 5a).
New green spaces also might be integrated with the renovation of shanty towns, dangerous
houses, economical buildings and public spaces, which is helpful to increase the average
area of GBI patches in HMB. Most of the existing parks, gardens and green patches in HMB
should be further enlarged or connected by building greenbelts and shaded walkways if
possible. Higher green view rate (GVR) often indicating abundant vegetation and better
Land 2022, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 15 of 24

average area of GBI patches in HMB. Most of the existing parks, gardens and green
Land 2022, 11, 544 15 of 24
patches in HMB should be further enlarged or connected by building greenbelts and
shaded walkways if possible. Higher green view rate (GVR) often indicating abundant
vegetation and better plant communities is better for cooling. The boulevard with com-
plant communities
fortable is better
street shading mightforbecooling. Theby
considered boulevard with comfortable
urban planners, which is astreet shading
GBI type with
might
complexbe shape
considered by urban
and high planners,
connectivity. which isit aisGBI
However, typefor
notable with complex
areas aroundshape
royal and
pal-
high connectivity. However, it is notable for areas around royal palaces and
aces and gardens, ancient government offices, altars and temple architecture clusters that gardens,
ancient government
the greening offices, altars
form, including plant and temple and
selection architecture clustersbe
layout, should that the greening
consistent withform,
their
including plant selection
own spatial style. and layout, should be consistent with their own spatial style.

Figure6.6. Thermal
Figure Thermal mitigation
mitigation measures
measures for
for aa typical
typical block
block in
in HMB.
HMB. (a)
(a) Distribution
Distribution of
of current
current LST
LST
hotspots
hotspots inin the
the block;
block; (b)
(b) Identification
Identification of
of vacancies
vacancies andand breakpoints
breakpoints should
should bebe connected
connected spatially
spatially
in green
in green spaces; (c)(c) Typical
Typicalthermal
thermalmitigation
mitigationmeasures
measuresininHMB, numbered
HMB, numbered in in
order of priority;
order (d)
of priority;
Land 2022, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW Schematic diagrams of typical UHI mitigation measures; (e) A short description of adaptive 16 of 24
thermal
(d) Schematic diagrams of typical UHI mitigation measures; (e) A short description of adaptive
mitigation
thermal solutions
mitigation in Figure
solutions in6c.
Figure 6c.

• Mid GBI proportion and high-rise blocks (MHB)

These blocks are more concentrated in the east and west sides of Beijing Old Town,
mainly dominated by residential and commercial buildings (e.g., Wangjing SOHO and
Chaonai Block and Fenghuiyuan Block), with almost no historical and cultural blocks in-
side. There is a high proportion of tall buildings that provide both ground spaces for
greening and shade, which contributes to the fact that the area and intensity of heat islands
in MHB is not as high as in HMB. However, a certain proportion of bare lands exists in
MHB. Thus, the planning and design of GBI to mitigate thermal stress gives priority to
retrofitting these bare lands into community parks and small pocket parks, or part play-
grounds into lawns. These renewal measures could be integrated with the Urban Master
Plan of Beijing (2016–2035) that requires such neighborhoods (non-historical and cultural
blocks, the main components of MHB) to achieve a 500 m service radius coverage of green
spaces, and to achieve the goal of park area per capita >6.8 m2 by 2035.
Considering that the shape complex and fragmentation of GBI has a significant im-
pact on thermal environment in MHB, it is also encouraged to enlarge isolated green
patches and to connect them with boulevards into a network. There are many feasible
ways to
Figure
Figure 7. enhance
7. Thermal the GBI network
Thermal mitigation
mitigation measures
measuressuch
for aaas
for building
typical
typical block
blocklinear
in greenbelts
in MHB.
MHB. (a) along streets,
(a) Distribution
Distribution of enlarg-
of current
current LST
LST
ing small
hotspots in gardens
the block;around buildingsofand
(b) Identification improving
vacancies vertical greening
and breakpoints should beofconnected
buildings. Here,
spatially
green
in greenstormwater
spaces;
spaces; (c) infrastructure
(c)Typical
Typical thermal and multilayer
thermalmitigation
mitigation measures
measures plantation
in MHB,
in MHB, could inbe
numbered
numbered in integrated
order with
of priority;
order (d)
of priority;
greenbelt
Schematic
(d) Schematic planning,
diagramsas
diagrams of ofwell
typical as UHI
UHI
typical green roof or roof
mitigation measures;
mitigation gardens
(e)
measures; A (e) Awith
short shortenergy-saving
description of building
description of adaptive thermal
adaptive
mitigation
thermal solutions
transformation.
mitigation Allinof
Figure 7c.
theinabove
solutions Figurecan
7c. make for great contributions to the formation of a
green, cool, shared nature space system for all.
• Low GBI proportion and low-rise blocks (LLB)
These blocks with a high percentage of historic and cultural blocks, such as Dashilar
Block and Andingmen Block, are mainly located in the core and north of Beijing Old
Town. Dense bungalows and two-storied houses, narrow public spaces and stricter pro-
tection requirements are among the top three challenges posed to thermal mitigation by
way of GBI in LLB. It is most urgent to increase the GBI proportion and improve the GBI
connectivity as much as possible; it is more feasible to greening streets and courtyards in
LLB.
Land 2022,11,
Land2022, 11,544
x FOR PEER REVIEW 16 of 24
17 24

Figure 8.8. Thermal

Figure Thermal mitigation
mitigation measures
measures for
for aa typical
typical block
block in
in LLB.
LLB. (a)
(a) Distribution
Distribution of
of current
current LST
LST
hotspots in
hotspots in the
the block;
block; (b)
(b) Identification
Identification of
of vacancies
vacancies and
and breakpoints
breakpoints should
should bebe connected
connected spatially
spatially
in green
in green spaces;
spaces; (c)
(c) Typical
Typical thermal
thermal mitigation
mitigation measures
measures inin LLB,
LLB, numbered
numbered in in order
order of
of priority;
priority;
(d)Schematic diagrams of typical UHI mitigation measures; (e) A short description
(d)Schematic diagrams of typical UHI mitigation measures; (e) A short description of adaptive of adaptive ther-
mal mitigation solutions in Figure
thermal mitigation solutions in Figure 8c. 8c.

•4. Discussion
Mid GBI proportion and high-rise blocks (MHB)
It is increasingly
These blocks are more acknowledged
concentrated thatin urban morphology
the east and west has sidesanofimportant
Beijing Old influence
Town,
mainly dominated by residential and commercial buildings (e.g., Wangjing SOHO paid
on the formation and distribution of UHI in cities [16,32,33,81]. Previous studies have and
more attention
Chaonai Block andto the spatial heterogeneity
Fenghuiyuan Block), with of UHI no
almost and its relationship
historical withblocks
and cultural spatialinside.
mor-
phology
There is ainhigh
a city, althoughof
proportion blocks are takenthat
tall buildings as the analysis
provide both units. Our spaces
ground study extends
for greeningthese
studies
and shade,by focusing on the finer
which contributes to spatial
the factmorphology
that the areaand andits influence
intensity on UHI
of heat in the
islands inhighly
MHB
urbanized
is not as high downtown
as in HMB. blocks, usingaWorldview3
However, remoteofsensing
certain proportion dataexists
bare lands with in spatial
MHB.resolu-
Thus,
tion of 0.3 m.
the planning and design of GBI to mitigate thermal stress gives priority to retrofitting
theseWe barefound
landsthere was a significant
into community parksUHIand effect
small in Beijing
pocket Old or
parks, Town,
part aplaygrounds
famous and into typ-
ical historical
lawns. downtown
These renewal region
measures of Beijing
could in China,
be integrated withas the
reflected
Urban by the higher
Master Plan ofaverage
Beijing
surface temperature
(2016–2035) that requires(LSTsuch
mean of 33.06 °C) and(non-historical
neighborhoods smaller temperature difference
and cultural blocks, (LST and
thestdmain
LSTrange wereof2.09
components MHB)°C and 25.25 °C,
to achieve respectively).
a 500 m service radiusIt wascoverage
demonstrated as the
of green contiguous
spaces, and to
warm matrix
achieve the goaland concentrated
of park hot patches
area per capita >6.8 min 2 by
Figure
2035. 3c. The combined application of
LSTmean , LSTstd, LST and Hot Spot Analysis
Considering that the shape complex and fragmentation of
range (Getis-Ord GiGBI
*) can
hasbetter reflect the
a significant spa-
impact
tialthermal
on heterogenous characteristics
environment in MHB, it ofisUHI
alsoin highly urbanized
encouraged to enlarge blocks.
isolated green patches and
The correlation
to connect them with analysis
boulevards between
into a the LST indicators
network. There are and many morphological
feasible ways characteris-
to enhance
ticsGBI
the revealed
networkthatsuch
the impervious
as buildingsurface, vegetationalong
linear greenbelts and water
streets,cover proportion
enlarging small were
gardens the
around
main land buildings and improving
cover indicators vertical
influencing thegreening
average of buildings.
surface Here, green
temperature stormwater
and temperature
infrastructure
differences in the andstudy
multilayer plantation
area, which could be integrated
was consistent with greenbelt
with the results planning,
of most related studies as
well as green roof or roof gardens with energy-saving building transformation.
[7,47,82]. Unlike previous studies which rarely associated the correlation analysis with the All of the
above
process canof make
urbanfor great contributions
planning, to the formation
this study conducted of a green,analysis
partial correlation cool, shared
between naturethe
space system forand
LST indicators all.spatial structure feature of built-up by controlling the impervious sur-
•face,Lowvegetation and waterand
GBI proportion cover proportion.
low-rise blocks (LLB)
Results showed that the building coverage ratio (BCR) and sky view factor (SVF)
wereThese blocks
positively with a high
correlated percentage
within the LSTmeanof historic
, which and
werecultural
consistentblocks,
withsuch as Dashilar
findings of most
Block and Andingmen Block, are mainly located in the core and north of Beijing Old Town.
studies [24,34,35,83]. The space crowd degree (SCD)—a less used indicator—was also pos-
Dense bungalows and two-storied houses, narrow public spaces and stricter protection
itively correlated with LSTmean, which reflected the difference of outdoor space encroach-
requirements are among the top three challenges posed to thermal mitigation by way of GBI
ment by buildings in blocks of Beijing Old Town; thus, this indicator was very applicable
in LLB. It is most urgent to increase the GBI proportion and improve the GBI connectivity
in this study area. Meanwhile, all height-related indicators, including MH, HBI and HFD,
as much as possible; it is more feasible to greening streets and courtyards in LLB.
were negatively correlated with LSTmean, which was consistent with the findings of most
Greening priority is given to hutongs with more serious heat islands. Greening
studies [30,84–87]. This probably resulted from increasing and differentiating building
corridors by planting street trees, bioswales or flower stands along wider hutongs is more
height in one area that can lead to shadows provision, wind corridors enhancement, build-
advocated because of the better connectivity and shape complexity. Street trees in LLB are
ing land saving and blue or green spaces reservation, thus contributing to UHI mitigation.
mainly tall species with larger canopies such as acacia and elm, mostly old or famous. So,
A comprehensive comparison of the absolute values of correlation coefficients showed
Land 2022, 11, 544 17 of 24

the protection of large trees should be firmly implemented to improve their maintenance,
the plant community structure of trees and shrubs and grasses that can be enriched around
large, old trees.
For the narrow streets and alleys, the potential spaces for greening should be various
and the greening form should be flexible due to the constraint of spaces. The building
setback spaces, unused paved frontiers, reserving micro-courtyards, paved spaces around
public transport stations in LLB could be greened into corner gardens, “one-meter gardens”
or hedgerows, etc. Integrated with pavilions and planters, the planting ponds, flower
beds or flower stands could also be used to green streets, walls and courtyards. All plants
should give priority to persimmon, acacia, magnolia, begonia and other native plants with
traditional cultural characteristics and ease to grow natively. For example, traditional plants
such as Parthenocissus tricuspidata can be used on the greening of walls or houses, which
can promote cooling and humidification benefits at the pedestrian height. Here, it is worth
emphasizing that public participation is very important to courtyard and hutong greening
in LLB.
Moreover, asphalt pavements are most used in hutongs; these pavements with dark
color and low albedo will lead to deterioration of the thermal environment. Those materials
might be replaced by high albedo materials in an urban renewal solution, giving priority to
the traditional pavement materials with light color and high reflectivity such as strips of
stone, stone slabs and gray processed bricks.

4. Discussion
It is increasingly acknowledged that urban morphology has an important influence
on the formation and distribution of UHI in cities [16,32,33,81]. Previous studies have
paid more attention to the spatial heterogeneity of UHI and its relationship with spatial
morphology in a city, although blocks are taken as the analysis units. Our study extends
these studies by focusing on the finer spatial morphology and its influence on UHI in the
highly urbanized downtown blocks, using Worldview3 remote sensing data with spatial
resolution of 0.3 m.
We found there was a significant UHI effect in Beijing Old Town, a famous and
typical historical downtown region of Beijing in China, as reflected by the higher average
surface temperature (LSTmean of 33.06 ◦ C) and smaller temperature difference (LSTstd and
LSTrange were 2.09 ◦ C and 25.25 ◦ C, respectively). It was demonstrated as the contiguous
warm matrix and concentrated hot patches in Figure 3c. The combined application of
LSTmean , LSTstd, LSTrange and Hot Spot Analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*) can better reflect the
spatial heterogenous characteristics of UHI in highly urbanized blocks.
The correlation analysis between the LST indicators and morphological characteris-
tics revealed that the impervious surface, vegetation and water cover proportion were
the main land cover indicators influencing the average surface temperature and temper-
ature differences in the study area, which was consistent with the results of most related
studies [7,47,82]. Unlike previous studies which rarely associated the correlation analy-
sis with the process of urban planning, this study conducted partial correlation analysis
between the LST indicators and spatial structure feature of built-up by controlling the
impervious surface, vegetation and water cover proportion.
Results showed that the building coverage ratio (BCR) and sky view factor (SVF)
were positively correlated within the LSTmean , which were consistent with findings of
most studies [24,34,35,83]. The space crowd degree (SCD)—a less used indicator—was
also positively correlated with LSTmean , which reflected the difference of outdoor space
encroachment by buildings in blocks of Beijing Old Town; thus, this indicator was very
applicable in this study area. Meanwhile, all height-related indicators, including MH,
HBI and HFD, were negatively correlated with LSTmean , which was consistent with the
findings of most studies [30,84–87]. This probably resulted from increasing and differen-
tiating building height in one area that can lead to shadows provision, wind corridors
enhancement, building land saving and blue or green spaces reservation, thus contributing
Land 2022, 11, 544 18 of 24

to UHI mitigation. A comprehensive comparison of the absolute values of correlation coef-

ficients showed that BCR and MH were the most important built-up factors influencing the
LSTmean . Since these two indicators are often used in urban planning, future consideration
for buildings management should be mainly from these two aspects to make adaptive UHI
mitigation measures.
This study tried to meet the needs of urban planning in terms of analysis process
setting and indicators and research unit selection. It will be meaningful and suitable for
urban planning, as it can offer practical, operational guidelines for urban managers. We
therefore focused on the correlation between LST and the composition and configuration of
GBI in blocks with different morphological characteristics, for GBI had been recognized as
the nature-based solution (NbS) to mitigate the UHI effect in cities. It was reflected that both
the GBI composition (trees/shrubs, water bodies, or grasslands) and the GBI patch size
and aggregation (AREA_MN and AI) all contributed to reducing the LSTmean , but partly
contributed to increasing the LSTstd , and the significance of the coefficients differed in three
types of blocks. Greater cooling potential can be provided by changing the patch area and
aggregation degree among three types of blocks in Beijing Old Town, which is similar to
the findings with Masoudi [13]. Besides, in the configuration section, the relationships
were more consistent in HMB and LLB, and significantly different in MHB. The relatively
consistent in terms of architectural structure between HMB and LLB might be one possible
reason, as they are both dominated by hutongs and bungalows. It is also found that the
absolute value of the correlation coefficient between GBI configuration and LSTmean was
higher in HMB and LLB, where low or medium-rise buildings dominate, than in MHB,
where there are more high-rise buildings, suggesting that the contribution of building
shadows on heat reduction may make the benefits of GBI on cooling less remarkable.
Consequently, cooling strategies should be differentiated by block types.
There are also some aspects that can be further improved in our study. We applied the
Pearson correlation analysis method, which is a simpler and commonly used method (which
was applied in 68% of the relevant studies [78]). However, some studies pointed to the fact
that the UHI phenomenon should be modelled locally instead of having an aggregated
model for an entire area, as thermal environment characteristics are context sensitive,
i.e., it varies significantly over space [63,88]. Although the block types were divided and
conducted the correlation analysis separately, which avoided the impact of spatial context
differences to some extent, some methods can provide more precise results of morphological
indicators and LST; e.g., curve fit linear regression. We will take these methods into
account in future studies [89]. Additionally, improving the ventilation environment has
an important role in enhancing urban thermal environment, and the element of wind is
also closely related to some important indicators in UP. Therefore, conducting the air path
studies at block level by assessing current ventilation environment and proposing potential
and existing ventilation corridors should be taken into consideration in further studies.
Finally, in the description of urban 3D morphology, we used spatial structure indicators of
buildings. However, as vegetated areas are an important composition of urban landscape,
different plant types also have differences in 3D characteristics, which may have an impact
on thermal environment. In the future, we can combine high resolution remote sensing data
with LiDAR data to describe urban 3D morphology characteristics more comprehensively.

5. Conclusions
As the UHI effect and its associated consequences are expected to be more severe,
mitigation of UHI has attracted increasing attention in urban studies. We followed a
common but practice-oriented framework of UHI research to guide thermal mitigation
solutions in this study. The spatial heterogeneity of UHI in blocks of Beijing Old Town
(BOT) are analyzed, with an emphasis on the relationship between thermal environment
and urban morphological characteristics, including basic land cover proportions and spatial
structure indicators of built-up, as well as landscape composition and configuration of
green and blue infrastructure within different spatial formed blocks.
Land 2022, 11, 544 19 of 24

Results showed that an obvious UHI effect was found in BOT, thermal environment
within was block heterogenous and significant hot and cold areas with significant high
or low land surface temperature, respectively, were all found, both of which were highly
aggregated spatially. Proportions of vegetated area and water body were found to have
a significant negative impact on block LST, while the proportion of impervious surface
(ISP) was the opposite, with the highest absolute value of correlation coefficient among
land cover characteristic indicators, reflecting its dominance in LST influencing. Bare soil
area, on the other side, the only land cover type of which proportion was not significant
with LST. By excluding the effect from land cover indicators, we revealed the significant
correlation between LST and several spatial structure indicators, i.e., building coverage
ratio, mean height, highest building index, height fluctuation degree, space crowd degree
and sky view factor. It also showed that coverage ratio and the mean height of buildings
were the two primary indicators having the greatest impact on LST in BOT through the
comparation of absolute values; thus, more attention can be paid to those two aspects in
further urban renewal as they are commonly used in urban planning.
The above laid a certain foundation for classifying block types in BOT by their mor-
phological characteristics, after which we analyzed the impact of a comprehensive selection
of indicators characterizing the composition and configuration of GBI in different block
types. It showed that the effectiveness of different indicators for guiding the construction
of GBI in each block varies, but generally by optimizing blue-green space composition,
increasing patch size, aggregation, dominance and connectivity, all therefore have potential
for promoting a block thermal environment. It is hoped that adaptive GBI planning and
design for block thermal mitigation could be conducted based on this correlation study in
the future renewal of old downtown.

Author Contributions: L.Z. and Q.C.; Conceptualization, L.Z. and Q.C.; methodology, L.Z. and Q.C.;
validation, L.Z., X.S. and Q.C.; formal analysis, L.Z. and X.S.; data Curation, L.Z.; writing—original
draft, L.Z.; writing—review and editing, Q.C. and L.Z.; supervision, Q.C.; funding acquisition, Q.C.
All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant
number 42171097.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available on request from the
corresponding author.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their expertise and valuable input.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix A

Table A1. Description of urban morphology indicators.

Category Indicators Formula Note

Impervious surface proportion (ISP) A IS
ISP = A × 100% A IS , AV , AW , AS , represents the area of
AV impervious surface, vegetated area, water
A × 100%
Vegetated area proportion (VP) VP =
Water proportion (WP) AW bodies, bare soil, respectively, A is
Land cover WP = A × 100%
Soil proportion (SP) AS block area.
characteristics SP = A × 100%
ρ N IR represents the reflection value in the
Normalized difference vegetation ρ N IR −ρ RED
NDV I = ρ N IR +ρ RED
NIR band, ρ RED represents the reflection
index (NDVI)
value in the red band [72].
Land 2022, 11, 544 20 of 24

Table A1. Cont.

Category Indicators Formula Note

In this paper, ISA of urban area was extracted by linear spectral hybrid
image element decomposition model. It mainly includes the minimum
Impervious surface area (ISA) noise separation, pure image element processing, end element
collection, linear spectral separation, result checking and correction of
the pre-processed images [73,74]
AB
A × 100%
Building coverage ratio (BCR) BCR =
n
Mean height (MH) MH = n1 ∑ Hi
i =1
Highest building index (HBI) HBI = ∑Hn maxH × 100% Hi , Fi refer to the height, volume,
i =1 i
footprint and perimeter of the building
Height fluctuation degree (HFD) HFD = Hmax − Hmin
n No.i respectively, n is the number of
Average Volume (AV) AV = 1
∑ Vi buildings, A is the area of the block,
n
i =1
n
∑n=1 Vi C = 3.0 m is a constant, Hmax is the
Urban spatial Space crowd degree (SCD) SCD = Hmax × A × 100%

H
 maximum height of the buildings in the
structure Floor area ratio (FAR)
n
∑i=1 Ai × Fi block, Hmin is the minimum height of the
characteristics FAR = A
n buildings in the block [71].
Building structural index (BSI) BSI = n ∑ HFii
1
i =1
n
Building surface area (BSA) BSA = n1 ∑ ( Fi + Pi × Hi
i =1
Ω is the sky view stereo angle, γi is the
n
∑i=1 sin γi
h i
Ω = 2π 1 − effect of terrain height angle on azimuth;
n
Sky view factor (SVF) n n is the number of calculated azimuths
∑i=1 sin γi
SVF = 1 − n (n = 36), and the spatial resolution is
5 m [75,76].

Appendix B

Table A2. Description of configuration indicators of GBI.

Category Indicators Formula Note

AGBI AGBI is the number of GBI patches in
Mean patch size (AREA_MN) AREA_MN = n
Patch Size a block.
a MAX
Largest patch index (LPI) LPI = A × 100 a MAX is block area.
ai refers to the area of the GBI patch number
Area-weighted fractal n 2 ln(0.25P )
FRAC_AM = 1
∑ i i, n is the number of GBI patches in a block,
dimension index (FRAC_AM) n ln ai
Patch shape i =1 Pi is boundary length of GBI patch No.i.
E is total length of the boundary of GBI
Landscape shape index (LSI) LSI = √0.25E
A
patches in a block, A GBI is coverage area of
GBI
GBI in a block
Number of patches (NP) NP = n n is the number of GBI patches in a block.
Area-weighted Euclidean Dij is the nearest distance between GBI patch
n D
nearest neighbor distance ENN AM = ∑ ij No.i and No.j, n is the number of GBI patches
Fragmentation n
(ENN_AM) i =1 in a block.
h
gii
i gii is the number of similar neighboring
Aggregation index (AI) AI = max − gii patches of GBI in a block.
Note: Methematical formulas of above indicators are refering to McGarigal and Marks [67].

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